grasping fortunes
by BlizzardWolf
Summary: A preSonic Riders fanfic explaining my version of how it all started. Not entirely accurate to the game, wasn't intended to be.
1. mystery

disclaimer: Jet the Hawk and all other related characters © Sonic TEAM, I do not own them. Used without permission

…_Babylon_…_  
A long time ago, there was a floating island known as Babylon_ _Garden.  
Supposedly, robbers lived there. According to rumors… this "legendary" band, the Babylon_ _Rogues, were_ _great thieves. Legend also says that the Babylon_ _Rogues incurred the wrath of the Gods because of their crimes, and their island was cast into the depths of the earth. After that, supposedly the Babylonians were then scattered for all time, never to be found. But they say that the Babylon_ _Rogue's treasure still remains on that island, waiting to be discovered. There are also rumors that the Babylon_ _Rogues are Extreme Gear specialists…_

"This is just a waste of time," mumbled the bright emerald-hued hawk, his brow furrowed and the ends of his beak curled downwards into a frown as he slammed his fist into the draft he had laid down in front of him. "The fat man would never fall for it."

"Who knows, Jet. He may be intelligent, but he might also be gullible. I know quite a few people like that," Chuckled a softly colored lavender swallow, which wore rather technical looking white clothing. She wore as well a neatly placed white bandana tied back behind her head, with yellowish, frameless goggles just resting above her eyes. She was obviously teasing Jet, the hawk… as she often did.  
"…You'd better _not_ be pointing fingers, Wave..."  
"Oh, don't worry. I'm not." She gave a rather sarcastic grin towards him as she winked in a teasing way. "Just keep practicing on it or you'll never learn."  
"Aggh… why can't _you_ just do it?"  
"Because I do almost everything _else_ for us." Jet merely snarled as a response.  
With that, she gave another loud cackle and slipped out of the room, honestly not expecting him to ever actually figure out anything adequate enough to use. What he didn't know was that she'd already prepared the papers… the rules, the ideas… everything.

"I hate her sometimes…" Jet growled to himself, frustrated as he picked up his pencil again, squeezing it tightly with his gloved hand as he plopped his opposing elbow onto the table, putting his head into his outstretched palm. With that, he continued writing, scribbling out, erasing… and cursing. Oh, how frustrated the poor bird was.

Wave and Jet… almost like brother and sister. Wave always seemed to be his older sister, always looking out for her 'little bro,' on top of picking on him on occasion. Jet looked up to her due to her staggering intelligence. She always assisted him whenever he was in trouble, too… which he also admired. She always took care of the situations, but only seemed to really only care about him, and the third member of their small clan - a large, soot gray albatross named Storm. Storm was not too bright, but he was indeed quite tough. He was the one who protected everything, and was incredibly defensive, short-tempered.

Several hours had passed in his small room of this forsaken house they'd chosen to use as a hideout, the sky turning to twilight. The small gems they'd had in the corner glinted slightly with the small ounces of sun left that was coming through the partially open window. It became difficult to see… and considering they lacked electricity in this specific part of the small shack, Jet decidedly stopped fiddling with ideas. He leaned back in his chair, causing it to utter an annoying _creeeeeaaaaaakkkk_. He sighed as he plopped his feet up on the table, reaching into one of his red-and-black boots. He pulled out a small crystal-looking box with fading inscriptions in it, clearly in an ancient, unused language.  
"You," He muttered to the box as he twirled it around in his fingers, studying it attentively. "Some day, I _will_ find out what my ancestors left you to me for…"  
He brought his feet down from the table and pushed the chair back to where it was meant to be by shifting his weight forwards, the chair obviously not liking it from it's displeased sound as its front legs hit the floor.  
He set the crystal box onto his plans, gently stroking it on one side as he leaned forward into it, squinting into its intricate hieroglyphics, studying them in the dying light.  
"Your mystery will be solved… soon…"


	2. inquisitions

It was a windy and sunny day at the beach, two of best friends were 'hanging out,' enjoying the weather and watching the waves crash up against the shore. One of them, a cobalt hedgehog with stunning green eyes masked by shades, was leaning back in a folding chair, his arms behind his head. He sighed contently. He felt just perfect at that moment, relaxed as can be. He was just fine without going in the water… as a matter of fact, water… or at least, being in it, terrified him. He couldn't swim - but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy watching it.  
His partner on the other hand, "Tails" the two-tailed fox, was quite enjoying his break from mechanics and having quite a bit of fun making sand-castles and writing inscriptions in the wet sand, to see them all be washed away, a new canvas getting ready for an entirely new doodle.

"Hey, Sonic!" Cried the fox in his high-pitched, young voice, "Look, look what I did!"  
The blue hedgehog's ear twitched as he lifted his head to view the fox, lifting his shades up as well to squint at what the fox had done. He'd apparently built a rather impressive sand castle - and was beaming. A small sweat drop appeared just below the hedgehog's ear. "...Er, that's really good." He said, a bit baffled himself at the precision used on the sand castle - it was symmetrical in every way. But he didn't expect anything less from Tails, however.  
"Thanks!" Tails spurted as he scavenged the area for seashells, trying to find one that matched the one he'd had in his hand; a beautiful spiraled one, with white and brown stripes.

The two were taking a break from their normally busy lives… being heroes wasn't easy, after all. It often left them drained. Having to fight a madman trying to take over the world every two weeks also became very frustrating, and repetitive. They did enjoy helping the citizens, but they enjoyed goofing off more… especially Sonic… Tails just enjoyed making mechanical things. 'Tinkering,' their friend Knuckles referred to it as.

He picked up another shell and examined it closely, Sonic leaning back again in his chair.  
"Eggman's been pretty quiet lately… you think he's up to something?" Tails said between looking at the two shells, comparing them in his palms.  
"Of course, what else is Egghead good for?" Sonic responded in a snide tone. Tails shrugged. "But what, I wonder." He said mostly to himself, before placing one of the shells back down on the sandy ground, scuttling around to get more.  
He continued to crawl on the ground, picking up shells, while straying further and further from his best friend.

"Aha!" He cried out as he found one that caught his attention. He reached out to snatch it, his hand still on the ground as he noticed a looming shadow slowly encircling him. He glanced upwards immediately to see what obstruction was blocking the sunlight, only to see the silhouette of a large blimp. He calmed briefly before he noticed the distinct orange-mustached symbol tattooed on the side of the airship slowly come into vision. This caused him to give a quick gasp. He knew instantly that it was Eggman's… how ironic! He'd only just mentioned him maybe ten minutes before hand.  
He continued staring upwards, standing up slowly as he watched the side of the blimp light up with a black screen, blindingly bright yellow letters flashed in a marquee across it. He squinted to read it.  
_Hohohoho! It's about time for some action, wouldn't you think! I've got a marvelous idea – are you interested in EXTREME GEAR? How about racing? How about being _the _fastest thing_ _alive? Then, my friends, come to Future_ _City_'_s Extreme Gear Festival! I'll be waiting for you!_

Tails stood up slowly, letting go of the seashell that he had just discovered and stepped back. This didn't sound good. Oh, not at all.  
He turned tail and scurried back to his 'big brother,' calling out his name in distress.  
"So-nic!" He called out, completely forgetting about his sand castle. The hedgehog had already dozed off again, thus was oblivious to the world.  
Tails ran up to him, panting a few times before placing a hand on his shoulder, shaking him briefly while repeating his name every few seconds.  
This seemed to work, as his eyes opened gradually to look groggily at Tails. He blinked.  
"Hey big guy, what's up...?" He questioned Tails' upset look.

Tails looked back to where the airship had been to only find that it had disappeared. Was it a figure of his imagination, he wondered? No, it couldn't have been! Eggman was just sneaky. Sonic asked his question again, feeling that Tails had not noticed he'd asked.  
"…I just saw a big blimp over there," Tails pointed as he continued; "it was Eggman's. It said that he was hosting a festival in Future City, and -"  
"Future City, huh?" Sonic rubbed his nose with a finger at this, "Sounds like we'll just have to check it out… see what the old idiot's up to. Wouldn't you agree, Tails?" Sonic grinned casually towards his friend, obviously not going to listen to what the distraught fox had to say. Tails just gave a weak sigh.  
"…Yeah, I guess so…"


End file.
